Baha'i Rights: Egyptian Media Anticipating 16 December Court Ruling

In its 7 December 2006 issue, the Egyptian newspaper "Nahdat Misr" published three articles on the highly anticipated Supreme Administrative Court session scheduled for 16 December 2006 to deliver a final judgement on awarding the Egyptian Baha'is their long awaited civil and human rights.

The first article is entitled "the Baha'is...or the Ministry of Interior?"

The full text of this 'brief' article is translated below.

Who will be victorious on 16 December:

On 16 December the fate of the Baha'is will be decided and the curtain will fall on the litigation that occupied the Egyptian and world public opinion when the Supreme Administrative Court will rule on the appeal put forth by the Ministry of Interior in its attempt to reverse the judgement of the Administrative Court which granted the Baha'is their rights to document their religion on official documents.

The Administrative Court has ruled in favor of a Baha'i family that is made up of a father and a mother who are Egyptian citizens, and belong to the Baha'i religion. They had submitted a request to add the names of their three daughters on their passports, and were surprised [shocked] by the refusal of the administrative agencies to return to them their passports and by the confiscation of their ID Cards [and their daughters' birth certificates], forcing them to file a lawsuit....

Soon after the court's judgement [in their favor], there was an eruption of a debate in religious and legal circuits among those who support the judgement and those who oppose it. While the [Islamic] religious leaders have proclaimed that "Baha'i" is not a religion [according to their opinion] and that Baha'i should not be entered on ID cards as a religion since they are considered as apostates [by Islamic fundamentalists], the human rights organizations praised the judgement as a victory for personal freedom, called for by the [Egyptian] constitution. These issues prompted the Ministry of Interior to appeal the ruling, requesting its reversal, and in its appeal it argued that the judgement gives the Baha'is the right to the recognition of their religion, considered by many as a shameful error. However, the brief for the defense prepared by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights confronted that argument, and affirmed that "not documenting the Baha'i religion in official documents [writing Muslim, Christian or Jewish instead] is considered a forgery crime punishable by the law...."

The full text of both the defense for the Baha'is and the government's response were then published in their entirety as two separate long articles in the same newspaper issue linked here & here.